Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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PERSONALIZED LOCATION-BASED ADVERTISEMENTS
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates generally to providing location-based
advertisement content, and more particularly to providing location-based
advertisement content to mobile device users based on user profile
information.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Mobile devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), cellular
telephones, smartphones, etc., have enjoyed dramatic increases in popularity
in
recent times with wireless carriers continually offering new services and
content to
their mobile subscribers, such as online gaming, Internet browsing, online
shopping
and social networking.
[0003] In the advertising industry there is an ever-present desire to reach
potential consumers in new and more effective ways. To that end, advertisers
have
begun to appreciate the need to reach mobile device users, particularly given
that
such users are reachable wherever they may be and at virtually any time.
However,
while such users may be easily reachable, there is a concern that unwanted or
irrelevant advertisements may result in a negative reaction from consumers who
have grown accustomed to using their mobile devices without the intrusions of
advertisements. Thus, while there have been some efforts to push advertising
content to mobile device users, such efforts have failed in large part to
their
inability to provide sufficiently personalized advertising content. The data
suggests
that the more relevant and directed the advertisement, the less likely it is
to be
viewed as an annoyance to the consumer. Accordingly, there is a need for a way
to
provide more directed and personalized advertising content to mobile device
users.
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SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0004] Disclosed and claimed herein is a method and server for providing
advertising content to a mobile device. In one embodiment, a method includes
receiving current location information for the mobile device over a wireless
network
connection, accessing user profile information corresponding to a user of the
mobile
device, performing an advertising database lookup based on the current
location
information and the user profile information, and selecting advertising
content
based on the advertising database lookup. The method further includes
transmitting the advertising content to the mobile device over the wireless
network
connection.
[0005] Other aspects, features, and techniques of the invention will be
apparent
to one skilled in the relevant art in view of the following description of the
exemplary embodiments of the invention.
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0006] FIG. 1 illustrates a communication system in accordance with an
embodiment of the invention;
[0007] FIG. 2 illustrate a process performed by a mobile user device in
accordance with an embodiment of the invention;
[0008] FIG. 3 illustrates a process performed by an advertisement server in
accordance with an embodiment of the invention; and
[0009] FIG. 4 illustrates another process performed by an advertisement
server in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS
Overview of the Disclosure
[0010] The present disclosure relates generally to selecting and presenting
advertising content to a mobile device user based on user location information
in
combination with user profile information. In certain embodiments, user
profile
information may be received during a signup process, or alternatively based on
the
user's online activities.
[0011] One aspect of the invention is to provide user location information for
a
given mobile device to an advertisement server over a network connection.
Additionally, user profile information, corresponding to the historical online
activities of the mobile device's user, is also provided to the advertisement
server.
In one embodiment, the user profile information may also include historical
location
information for the given mobile device.
[0012] Another aspect of the invention is to use current location information,
in
combination with profile information, to perform a database lookup for the
most
relevant advertising content available. In one embodiment, this database
lookup
operation may comprise a two-step filtration operation of an advertising
database
based first on the user profile information, and then on the user's current
location
information. In this fashion, advertisements that are most likely to be of
interest to
the user at the current time may be selected and provided to the user's mobile
device.
[0013] As used herein, the terms "a" or "an" shall mean one or more than one.
The term "plurality" shall mean two or more than two. The term "another" is
defined as a second or more. The terms "including" and/or "having" are open
ended
(e.g., comprising). The term "or" as used herein is to be interpreted as
inclusive or
meaning any one or any combination. Therefore, "A, B or C" means "any of the
following: A; B; C; A and B; A and C; B and C; A, B and C". An exception to
this
definition will occur only when a combination of elements, functions, steps or
acts
are in some way inherently mutually exclusive. Reference throughout this
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document to "one embodiment", "certain embodiments", "an embodiment" or
similar
term means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described
in
connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the
present invention. Thus, the appearances of such phrases in various places
throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same
embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or
characteristics
may be combined in any suitable manner on one or more embodiments without
limitation.
[00141 In accordance with the practices of persons skilled in the art of
computer
programming, the invention is described below with reference to operations
that are
performed by a computer system or a like electronic system. Such operations
are
sometimes referred to as being computer-executed. It will be appreciated that
operations that are symbolically represented include the manipulation by a
processor, such as a central processing unit, of electrical signals
representing data
bits and the maintenance of data bits at memory locations, such as in system
memory, as well as other processing of signals. The memory locations where
data
bits are maintained are physical locations that have particular electrical,
magnetic,
optical, or organic properties corresponding to the data bits.
[00151 When implemented in software, the elements of the invention are
essentially the code segments to perform the necessary tasks. The code
segments
can be stored in a processor readable medium, which may include any medium
that
can store or transfer information. Examples of the processor readable mediums
include an electronic circuit, a semiconductor memory device, a read-only
memory
(ROM), a flash memory or other non-volatile memory, a floppy diskette, a CD-
ROM,
an optical disk, a hard disk, a fiber optic medium, a radio frequency (RF)
link, etc.
Overview of an Exemplary Online Environment
[00161 FIG. 1 depicts a communication system 100 in which one or more aspects
of the invention may be implemented. In particular, communication system 100
is
depicted as including a carrier network 105 which provides wireless
communications services to at least one-mobile device 110. The carrier network
105
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supports at least one wireless communications protocol such as Global System
for
Mobile communications (GSM), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Code
Division Multiple Access (CDMA) or Wideband CDMA (WCDMA). The mobile
device 110 may be any electronic device .adapted to communicate with the
carrier
network 105, such as a cellular telephone, smartphone, personal digital
assistant
(PDA), handheld computer, etc.
[0017] The mobile device 110 includes a display 115, a user input 120 and a
location client 125, which in one embodiment comprises one or more software
modules configured to determine and process location information, such as
global
positioning system (GPS) information. While in one embodiment, the display 115
may be a liquid crystal display (LCD), it should equally be appreciated that
any
other type of display consistent with the principles of the invention may be
used.
The user input 120 may include one or more buttons or keys in the form of a
keypad, number pad, keyboard or any other collection of individual keys,
buttons or
the like. In another embodiment, the user input 120 may be integrated with the
display 115 in the form of a touch screen. In a typical embodiment, the mobile
device 110 will be a resource-limited device, with limited processing and/or
data
storage capabilities.
[0018] Continuing to refer to FIG. 1, the mobile device 110 is further
depicted as
including an optional speech-to-text application 130, which may comprise one
or
more software modules configured to parse a user's spoken input, and convert
such
spoken input to text. Additionally, the mobile device 110 further comprises
one or
more additional applications 135, which may include any known mobile device
software application, such as a browser application, email client, text
message
client, etc.
[0019] Communication system 100 further includes an Internet Protocol (IP)
network 140 providing communication paths between the mobile device 110,
content servers 1451 - 145n and advertisement server 155. While FIG. 1 depicts
carrier network 105 as being separate and distinct from the IP network 140, it
should equally be appreciated that the functionality provided by the carrier
network
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105 and IP network 140 may be provided by a single network, or may be operated
and managed by a single carrier, or as part of a larger collection of
individual
networks. With respect to the IP network 140, it should be appreciated that it
may
be based on any other packet-based networking technology.
[0020] System 100 further includes an optional speech recognition server 150,
which may be used instead of, or in addition to, the aforementioned optional
speech-
to-text application 130 in order parse users' spoken input into the text-based
equivalent.
[0021] Content servers 1451-145n may include any server capable of providing
online content over IP network 120, including audio content, video content,
streaming media, music, gaming-based content, transaction-based content (e.g.,
online purchasing), text-based content, graphics-based content and any
combination
thereof. In addition, advertisement server 155 may be configured to provide
advertising content to the mobile device 110, as will be described in more
detail
below with reference to FIGs. 2 - 4. Advertisement server 150 may be a single
server or a collection of servers.
[0022] In one embodiment, advertising server 155 may include a profile
database
155 or collection of databases configured to maintain user profile information
for a
plurality of users (e.g., user of mobile device 110). For example, the profile
database
may maintain profile information associated with a given mobile user's online
activities. Such profile database 155 may include a collection of individual
demographic characteristics, such as age, social class, gender, race, income,
educational attainment, home ownership, employment status, etc. In addition,
such
user profile information may include historical location information provided
by the
mobile device 110 using, for example, the location client 125. In addition,
the user
profile information may include any online habits a user, such as browsing
habits,
emailing or texting habits, etc. It should further be appreciated that such
profile
information may be based on communications made by the user, including the
content of emails and text messages, as well as the content of spoken
communications that have been converted to text using the speech-to-text
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application 130 and/or the speech recognition server 155. While the profile
database
is shown as being integrated with the advertisement server, it may
alternatively be
integrated with a separate server that is also coupled to the IP network 120.
[0023] In addition to the profile database 165, advertising server 155 may
further include ad database 160 which, in one embodiment, may include
advertising
content to be served to user devices, such as mobile device 110. Such
advertising
content may include audio advertisements, video advertisements, text-based
advertisements, graphics-based advertisements and any combination thereof.
[0024] Referring now to FIG. 2, depicted is a process 200 for implementing one
embodiment of the invention using a mobile device (e.g., mobile device 110) in
communication with an advertisement server (e.g., ad server 155) over a
wireless
network connection (e.g., carrier network 105 and/or IP network 140). In one
embodiment, process 200 may be carried out using one or more software modules
executing on the mobile device (e.g., application 135). In any event, process
200
begins with a determination of the user's current location at block 210. In
one
embodiment, the user's current location may be determined using the device's
GPS
functionality provided by a GPS transceiver and a location client (e.g.,
location
client 125). Process 200 may then continue to block 220 where the location
information determined at block 210 may be transmitted to an advertisement
server
over the wireless network connection. In one embodiment, the location
information
may comprise standard coordinate information, while in other embodiments the
location information may be based on any other location metric (e.g., zip
code, area
code, city, county, etc.)
[0025] Process 200 may then continue to block 230 where user profile data may
be determined. Such user profile data may include music or video downloading
history/habits and/or online purchase history/habits. The spectrum of possible
online actions usable to infer profile data may further include a subject
user's
history or habits for browsing, emailing, texting, social interacting, fantasy
sports
activities, auctions, personals, navigation and news selection. Essentially,
the forms
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of user activities that can be used to infer profile data are as varied as the
types of
activities which can be catalogued in a user profile.
[0026] Another example of user profile information may be based on user
communications, including the actual content of emails and text messages. Such
communications may be parsed by an application executing on the mobile device
(e.g., one of applications 135), or alternatively on the advertisement server
(e.g., ad
server 150). In either case, one or more keywords may be transmitted, as
profile
data, to the advertising server for updating the given user's profile
information.
Similarly, spoken communications may be converted to text (e.g., using the
speech-
to-text application 130 and/or the speech recognition server 155 of FIG. 1),
with the
parsed data being forwarded to the advertisement server.
[0027] Continuing to refer to FIG. 2, once the user profile information has
been
determined at block 230, it may be transmitted to the advertisement server at
block
240. Process 200 may then loop back to block 210 where updated user location
information may be determined. In this fashion, a user profile and location
history
may be updated and maintained by a central advertising server, in accordance
with
the principles of the invention.
[0028] Referring now to FIG. 3, depicted is another process 300 for
implementing
one embodiment of the invention. In particular, process 300 may be carried out
by
an advertisement server (e.g., ad server 155) in communication with a
plurality of
mobile devices (e.g., mobile device 110) over a network connection (e.g.,
carrier
network 105 and/or IP network 140). Beginning at block 310, process 300
includes
receiving user location information, which in one embodiment may be the
location
information transmitted at block 220 of FIG. 2. Process 300 may then proceed
to
block 320 where user profile information may be received. In one embodiment
the
user profile information received at block 320 may correspond to the user
profile
information transmitted during process 200 at block 240. In any event, such
user
profile data may include any online activity engaged in by a user of a mobile
device.
[0029] Process 300 may then continue to block 330 where a user profile that is
associated with a given mobile device, may be updated based on the received
user
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location information of block 310 and/or the user profile data of block 320.
In this
fashion, a historical record of the user's online habits and physical
locations may be
maintained.
[0030] Referring now to FIG. 4, illustrated is one embodiment of a process 400
to
be carried out by an advertisement server (e.g., ad server 150) in accordance
with
the principles of the invention. Specifically, process 400 begins at block 410
with
the advertisement server receiving current user location information from a
given
mobile device (e.g., mobile device .110) over a network connection (e.g.,
carrier
network 105 and/or IP network 140). In one embodiment, this location
information
may correspond to the location information of process 200 provided by the
mobile
device at block 220 of FIG. 2.
[0031] Upon receiving the location information of block 410, process 400 may
continue to block 320 where the user profile corresponding to the given mobile
device maybe accessed (e.g., from profile database 165). While in one
embodiment,
this lookup operation may be performed using an identification code
transmitted
with the location information, it should equally be appreciated that numerous
other
methods may be similarly employed. For example, a location client (e.g.,
location
client 125) executing on the mobile device may forward the location
information to
the advertisement server over a persistent connection and/or according to a
particular data format.
[0032] Once the appropriate user profile information has been accessed at
block
420, process 400 may continue to block 430 where a lookup operation of an
advertisement database (e.g., ad database 160) may be performed based on a
combination of the current location information received at block 410, and the
user
profile information accessed at block 420. As previously described, the
profile
information may comprise a historical record of the user's locations, such as
areas
frequently visited, as well as the user's online habits. Such habits may
include
such things as music or video downloading, online purchases, browsing,
emailing,
texting, social interacting, fantasy sports activities, auctions, personals
and/or news
selection history/habits.
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[0033] In one embodiment, the database lookup operation of 430 may comprise a
two-step filtration operation of the ad database. Namely, the first operation
may
comprise filtering a pool of all available advertisements based on the user
profile
information, thereby identifying advertisements that are most likely to be of
interest generally for the user in ,question. Thereafter, a second operation
may be
performed in which this subset of advertisements may be further filtered based
on
the user's current location information, and hence identify advertisements
that are
most likely to be of interest to the user at the current time based on the
user's
current position.
[0034] Based on the results of the lookup operation of block 430, process 400
may
continue to block 440 where advertising content may be selected from an
advertising database (e.g., ad database 160). As previously mentioned, such
advertising content may comprise audio advertisements, video advertisements,
text-
based advertisements, graphics-based advertisements and any combination
thereof.
[0035] Process 400 may then continue to block 450 where the selected
advertising content may be transmitted over the network connection to the
user's
mobile device. In one embodiment, the selected advertising content is
transmitted
over a wireless network connection to a mobile device, such as over carrier
network
105 and/or IP network 140 to mobile device 110). In this fashion, the most
relevant
advertising content may be made available to mobile device users. That is,
advertisements that are most likely to be of interest to the user at their
current
location may be identified and provided to the user.
[0036] Although the wireless communications described above with respect to
FIGS. 2 - 4 may occur over one or both of a carrier network and a separate IP
network, in some cases only a single network may be used. Similarly, a number
of
interconnected networks alternatively may be used.
[0037] While the invention has been described in connection with various
embodiments, it should be understood that the invention is capable of further
modifications. This application is intended to cover any variations, uses or
adaptation of the invention following, in general, the principles of the
invention, and
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including such departures from the present disclosure as come within the known
and customary practice within the art to which the invention pertains.
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